


Psychopaths at Hogwarts

by ch1ps0h0y



Series: Psychopaths at Hogwarts [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Psycho-Pass
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, Gen, Hogwarts First Year, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-05-03
Updated: 2013-05-02
Packaged: 2017-12-10 06:10:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,838
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/782713
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ch1ps0h0y/pseuds/ch1ps0h0y
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hogwarts: School of Witchcraft, Wizardry and Psychopaths. Shougo Makishima and Shinya Kougami are two budding wizards which chance and circumstance bring together. These are their adventures.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Psychopaths at Hogwarts

It's the year 2096. Shougo Makishima is ten years old (going shortly on to eleven) and has just received his letter of acceptance from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. As the only son of a little-known (but respectable) pure-blood family with distant ties to the imperial family in Japan, Shougo's parents are simply ecstatic when they receive the news. Born in England, but having lived eight of his almost-eleven years in his parents' native land, Shougo himself is quite bemused by the fuss and not quite sure he wouldn't have preferred the equally prestigious wizarding school located in the country he is most familiar with.

Nevertheless, the appropriate reply is promptly sent off via owl post, and a week later his father escorts him to Diagon Alley to buy the required supplies, textbooks, and clothing. And even Shougo - who has grown up hearing all sorts of wizard terms such as 'Muggle', 'Wizengamot', along with various other political tidbits that his parents chatted about when they thought he wasn't listening - gapes to see a true wizarding community concealed behind the brick wall of a pub.

"But where does the space go?" is the question revolving around his clever, young mind as he struggles to reconcile the apparent dimensions of a pub with a backyard the size of a city, nestled back-to-back amongst a string of boutique stores. Physics and magic, apparently, are two completely different beasts.

Stepping into the world of magic feels like stepping through a time portal: there are no mobile phones here, no computers, no men or women in sharp suits and sharp heels - instead they wear robes, in varying states of brand new to ragged, often with a pointed hat in true wizard/witch fashion. Which is, he thinks with amusement, quite old hat (pardon the pun). Shougo's fascination with the past and its old-world atmosphere brings a shine to his pale gold eyes, and he's brimming with curiosity for this new world - even if said world is tinged with the scent of magic rather than cold, logical science.

Walking beside his father as they make for Gringotts and trying to stare through the window of every shop they pass (particularly the book stores), Shougo doesn't at first notice the other boy coming towards him. It's not until they're shoulder to shoulder, piercing grey eyes slanting in his direction on their way past, that he twists around. Too late to call out, he can only watch the straight-backed form of the other boy receding. His father, tugged to a halt by his lack of movement, follows his gaze but doesn't see anything amiss.

"Something the matter, son?"

Shougo shakes his head and takes the lead, dragging his father along until he's caught up to. "I just thought I saw something interesting."

 

September 1st, platform nine and three-quarters. The ancient but resplendent Hogwarts Express is waiting patiently for students to board. Shougo spends most of the time examining the wheels and engine - a real, functioning steam engine in this day and age! - until his parents pull him aside for hugs and kisses and fond goodbyes. He won't have a chance to see them until the Christmas holidays. He climbs aboard and finds an empty compartment to wave to his parents from as a shrill whistle sounds and the train begins to ponderously move off, clouds of white smoke billowing in its wake from beneath the chassis.

Shougo watches the station recede. The brick and mortar building from which the Hogwarts Express departs is all that remains of the old Kings Cross station. It had been demolished, the train tracks uprooted, about fifty years back to make way for apartments, public space, and a brand new shopping centre, with rail transport in the late 21st century relegated entirely to the underground in order to cope with the growing population. Shougo spends the initial part of the journey wondering what sort of magic had been required to hide something so obviously anachronistic. Probably the same sort that can hide an entire wizard village in the middle of London.

He sits back eventually, smoothing his hands over the worn seats. Generations of wizards and witches had undertaken this exact journey, in this exact train. Had they been nervous? Excited? He can hear strains of laughter from other compartments as new friends are made, or old friends share stories about their exploits during the summer. Shougo is alone, but he's used to solitude. Opening a small pouch he had bought in Diagon Alley, he pulls from within its impossible depth a thick tome ("Hogwarts: An Extended History") with the intent of doing some light reading. He barely makes it to the end of the first chapter when the door is thrust aside with a rough clatter.

Annoyed at the interruption, he looks up, mouth open, to tell the intruder to bugger off. Slanted grey eyes meet pale yellow from beneath a messy, spiky fringe.

"You mind?" The newcomer jerks his head in the direction of the empty seats across from Shougo.

Shougo struggles to find the words to form an answer. It's the boy who glanced at him at Diagon Alley! Taking his lack of protest to be permission to step inside, the other boy slides the door shut behind him and falls on to a vacant seat.

A thick silence cultivates in the compartment.

Shougo tucks a strand of white hair behind his ear, deciding that, as long as the other boy doesn't speak to him, he can tolerate their physical presence. It would be rather petty to turn them out when it's meant to be a six-person compartment, after all. So he drops his eyes, turns to the next chapter, and quickly becomes absorbed in the book's account of the construction of Hogwarts Castle.

This time he gets as far as the beginning of the recount of the Second Wizarding War in chapter five before he's interrupted again.

"If you're going to read about Harry Potter and the Dark Lord, you're better off reading Granger."

"I know," Shougo says testily and without thinking, "I have all of her books." Realising that he just broke his vow of silence, he presses his lips together and lifts the book up so that it shields his face. Which means he doesn't see the other boy lift his eyebrows and look mildly impressed.

"I think she's a bit biased to be honest. She was there, at the Battle of Hogwarts, but lots of sources say that she was a close friend of Potter's. That's got to colour her perspective a bit."

Shougo doesn't know why, but he suddenly has an inexplicable urge to punch this boy in the face.

"What about the other side, for example," they continue. "We don't know anything about their motives. Everyone says they were Dark Wizards, but were they really? No 'Dark Wizard' has ever written something we can refer to - I suppose because no-one would publish it even if they did - so all we have is what the victors say happened, and from their point of view."

What's most aggravating about this is that the other boy has a valid point, and Shougo has pondered the question himself not a few times. To hear it from someone else's mouth though, delivered so matter-of-factly as if Shougo is an ignorant pupil who needs this pointed out to him, makes him lower his book and open his mouth to correct this newcomer's presumptions.

Except before he can, the door to his compartment opens yet again, and the albino turns his glare upon the two unfortunates standing in the doorway. One with shockingly blonde hair, similar to him, and the perpetual beginnings of a sneer on his lip; the other with short-cut, neat brown hair and friendly eyes and a friendly smile. They are slightly taken aback by the venom in his gaze, but unperturbed.

"Are you Makishima?" the blonde asks - the clear ringleader of the pair. His eyes flick over the dark-haired boy sitting just to his left and summarily dismisses him, focusing on Shougo. "From Japan?"

"Who wants to know?" Shougo aggressively asks back. Didn't people know not to drag a bookworm out of his book? The speaker looks mildly offended that he doesn't know them upon first glance, but humours him by answering.

"I'm Malfoy. Leo Malfoy. From one of the last surviving pureblood families in Britain." 'Britain', Shougo notes with a mental eyeroll. "I thought you'd like to join the rest of us at the front of the carriage."

Self-assured. Arrogant. Shougo's family is on the pureblood register in Japan, it's true, but he has never seen this level of inflated importance in anyone that his parents mingle with. Are the purebloods in England all this pompous?

"No, thank you. As you can see, I already have company." He pointedly nods his head towards- goodness, he didn't even know their name. He nods towards the boy with grey eyes, who smirks a little when the pair glance his way again. Disgruntled, Malfoy musters what little dignity an eleven-year-old boy can.

"If you change your mind, you know where to find us." The pair retreat, and the door rattles shut. Blessed silence reigns once more.

Shougo meets the gaze of the other boy. They stare passively at each other for a few seconds, before smirking in unison.

"Shinya Kougami."

"Shougo Makishima."

 

The man who meets the first years at the platform is...strange, to say the least.

For one thing, he doesn't blink. Not that Shougo can tell, at least. He frowns at them without blinking for an entire minute waiting to see if their eyelids move, but they don't, and Shougo has to concede by blinking watery eyes. The man also wears a rictus of a smile that is clearly meant to be pleasant, except it looks too forced.

"First years with me, if you please!"

The younger students edge their way around the flood of older teens heading purposefully out of the station. Shougo cranes his neck, trying to see where they go, but the teeming body of eleven-year-olds and poor light makes it difficult for him to discern anything.

Holding a lantern up, the man gazes out over the sea of black cloaks and appears to find everything in order. Calling for them to keep together, they join the tail end of the returning students out of the station, splitting off to head towards the lake instead of the long road that leads out into a copse of trees. A road, Shougo assumes, which leads to Hogwarts.

The lake is dark as ink, reflecting only the small pools of light from the mini lanterns on the prows of the small boats they're herded on to in groups of four. Apparently this is the traditional way in which first years are delivered, and Shougo has to admit, the spectacle of Hogwarts Castle silhouetted against the night sky as they glide through the water is something to behold after a several hours' long journey. Shinya, seated beside him, lets out a low whistle of appreciation, muttering beneath his breath to Shougo, "Reading about it in a book doesn't make the real thing any less impressive."

Shougo nods wordlessly in agreement.

They pass beneath a curtain of ivy, travel along a tunnel lit by flickering torches, and soon bump against an inlet of rocks and pebbles. This is their cue to disembark, and there's a confused scramble as the little boats wobble unsteadily and nudge each other against the shore. Shougo and Shinya get out without too much trouble, hastily skipping aside as another boat pushes aside the one they were just on.

Once everyone is out, the unblinking man calls for them to follow him again and leads them up a narrow passage. It takes them to a spot well in the shadow of the looming castle. Rough stone becomes soft grass beneath their feet as the first years spill into the area in front of the castle's main entrance. They unconsciously draw together as their guide walks up the staircase to the great oak door and pounds on the thick wood. An anxious minute follows as they wait for it to open.

"Sure are taking their time, huh," Shinya comments, rubbing his arm. As if hearing his words, the door swings inward. Upon the threshold stands a stern man with square glasses, wearing a pointed hat and robes which appear black upon first glance, but are actually a deep lapis lazuli. He surveys the new arrivals without a single change in expression then nods to the other man.

"Thank you, Toyohisa, I will escort them from here. Please go and tend to your Skrewts before poor Nobuchika's hands are seared off." Their unblinking guide's smile widens. He chuckles as he strides off, leaving them in the care of the man with glasses.

This second man gestures for them to come inside, so they shuffle in as a group. The width of the doorway is impressive, but more impressive still is the soaring ceiling that goes up higher than the eye can clearly see. Shougo almost topples back on to the person behind him trying to follow the walls up to where they curve and meet. Dizzy, he brings his gaze back down to the sweeping marble staircase that they're being led up and almost trips on one of the steps. Shinya steadies him, amused, as they file down a stone hallway lined with stone braziers. They're halted for a few minutes outside two great doors and shepherded into something vaguely resembling an orderly line. Shougo can hear the murmuring of a hundred voices coming from behind the wood as he takes his place in the line.

"Welcome to Hogwarts. I am Professor Saiga. The start-of-term banquet has commenced, and shortly you will join your peers in the Great Hall. First, however, you will be sorted into your houses. The Sorting Ceremony--"

"Which house do you think you'll be in?" whispers Shinya as Professor Saiga drones on. Shougo shrugs and straightens his robes, whispering back, "Don't know. You?"

"Ravenclaw." Shinya grins at him, and he has to concede that the other boy does fit what he's heard about the house. He hopes to be sorted into that house as well, not liking the reputation that clings to Slytherin.

"--so I hope each of you will do your house proud," concludes Professor Saiga, pushing up his glasses. A tiny ball of light squeezes through the crack in the double doors behind him and hovers by his ear, disappearing after delivering its message. Apparently this is their cue to enter, because Professor Saiga claps his hands together sharply and everyone immediately straightens.

"Keep in line," he warns them, before turning around and pushing the doors open.

Shougo's gasp is closely echoed by Shinya and the others in line as they take their first steps into the Great Hall.

Four long tables, two on each side of the hall, draped with crisp white table cloths and laid with tableware that can't possibly be real gold (except it is, Shougo realises upon staring at one of the cups as he walks past) fill the majority of the hall. Equally long benches seat hundreds of students, whose faces turn almost in unison to watch the first years enter. And at the furthest end of the hall, sitting behind a table on a raised platform above the rest, are those whom Shougo presumes to be the teachers.

The chatter only seems to increase while Professor Saiga lines them up in front of that table with their backs to the teachers, facing the four long tables. But silence soon falls, and pale, pearly shapes drift out of the walls. Shougo realises with a start that they're ghosts come to watch the Sorting.

Before them, Professor Saiga places a battered old wizard's hat on top of a stool.

Shougo hears whispers around him as the others speculate about what it is. Glancing at the students seated below and seeing how their eyes are fixed upon the hat, Shougo has a feeling it has more importance than they're crediting it with.

And then the hat begins to _sing_.

Shougo's mouth drops open in surprise, shutting it hurriedly when Shinya nudges him. He really shouldn't be surprised by anything anymore where magic is involved. The hat belts out a long ditty about the four houses, making Shougo even more anxious that he be sorted into Ravenclaw rather than Slytherin, because he has the sinking feeling that he meets every one of the criteria.

Professor Saiga steps forward again with a long roll of parchment in his hands. "When I call out your name, please step forward and place the Sorting Hat on your head." He unravels the parchment and frowns officiously at the first name. "Allen, Thomas!"

The list is alphabetical, so he and Shinya wait impatiently for Professor Saiga to reach the K's. As the hat sends "Karanomori, Shion" to Ravenclaw, Shougo is relieved when it's Shinya's turn to strut forward. All that bouncing up and down on his toes had made Shougo feel unnecessarily anxious.

It turns out all that anxiety had been unnecessary: Shinya is sent off to the Ravenclaw table just as he wished, grinning broadly, after only four seconds of deliberation by the hat. His face joins the numerous others watching and waiting, as "Kunizuka, Yayoi" is sent to Hufflepuff and "Madden, Peter" becomes a Slytherin. Then, it's Shougo's turn.

Shougo perches on the stool with a calmness that he doesn't feel. The battered old hat settles over his eyes, and after a moment, a disembodied his voice (from the hat?) begins to speak into his ear.

"Oh, now this is interesting - it's not often you see two like minds. Plenty of intelligence, quick wits, a desire to stand out, hmm... Aha! - but you do have cunning..."

Cunning? Shougo doesn't think he's particularly cunning--

"You would be surprised," the hat tells him, and he jolts in shock. "Yes, yes, I think you'll do very well in--RAVENCLAW!"

Shougo breathes a sigh of relief. Shinya applauds lazily with the rest of the Ravenclaw table as he removes the hat and makes his way down the steps, collapsing into the empty spot beside his new housemate. Glancing over his shoulder at the Slytherin table, he catches the gazes of several disgruntled students before they look away, giving Shougo the feeling that he has somehow fallen short of their expectations.

He shrugs them off though, sharing a grin with Shinya as Malfoy, the boy who had approached them on the train, is predictably sent to Slytherin. The rest of the sorting proceeds without trouble, the last girl joining the Gryffindor table to loud cheers as Professor Saiga takes the Sorting Hat and stool away. The noise level immediately dies down when the Headmistress stands to give her address.

"To those who have joined us, I welcome you to Hogwarts. To those who have returned for another year of learning, welcome back. I am Joshu Kasei, your Headmistress." She is a somewhat thin woman, dressed in black robes like them, only with a lining of magenta on the inside and emerald green hemming along her sleeves. A pair of narrow, square spectacles sits on the bridge of her nose, forcing her to look down with a vaguely contemptible air. Her lack of smile does not help the impression, and Shougo shifts uncomfortably when her gaze sweeps over him. "I will not keep you long from your dinner. All years are reminded that the Forbidden Forest is out of bounds to students, without exception. That is all." And she sits back down, folding her hands in her lap.

On some silent cue, the golden plates suddenly fill to the brim with roasts, soup tureens, stacks of jacket potatoes, and more food than Shougo has ever seen in one place in his entire life. Stunned, he isn't the only first year to gaze slack-jawed at the feast that has suddenly materialised in front of them. Shinya, though, acts as if this is a matter of course and quickly helps himself to some chicken and potato salad.

"'Ey, if 'ou don' 'urry up, it'll all be gone!"

Shougo blinks. He glances sideways at his new friend, who is tearing into the chicken with gusto. "You're going to choke--" Shinya starts coughing, hand flailing for the closest jug (which Shougo passes over). The other boy starts to drink straight from it, but then sprays the entire mouthful (and a large piece of chicken meat) across the table. Thankfully, no-one is sitting directly across from them.

"What is this?!" Shinya demands, shoving it under Shougo's nose.

Shougo sniffs at the liquid. "...Pumpkin?" Shinya makes a face and shoves the jug into Shougo's hands. Well, at least he isn't choking any more, the albino thinks as he pours himself a goblet-full from it.

When the feast is over (Shougo hadn't realised that there was dessert and could only watch regretfully as Shinya scoffed down several puddings), a prefect leads them to the Ravenclaw common room. It's a long climb up a tall, spiral staircase to get there, but when they do, it's a sight to behold.

Despite the tight dimensions of the tower they just climbed, the common room is spacious and airy, with several high, arched windows overlooking the grounds. Bookcases line the walls and floor amidst comfy armchairs and tables, and drapes of blue and bronze above their heads complement the midnight blue carpet. There is a statue of their house's founder, Rowena Ravenclaw, beside the door, looking regally over them like the proud eagle that is her emblem.

The prefect warns them to make sure that they take everything they need for the day before leaving the common room - the riddle on the door can sometimes be tricky - before showing the girls and boys to their respective dormitories. Their trunks have already been brought up.

"Get a good night's rest," the prefect advises them before departing. "You'll need it."

Shougo and Shinya finally get a chance to introduce themselves briefly to their dorm-mates: a Korean named Choe, and two other boys who give their names out of courtesy but seem disinterested in friendship with the three Asians.

"Can't wait 'til tomorrow," Shinya yawns as they get changed into their pyjamas and slip beneath the covers. "Looking forward to Transfiguration-- zz..."

Shougo shares an amused look with Choe as they, too, bed down. He reaches over and turns down the lamp on Shinya's bedside table before doing the same for his own. The dormitory goes dark, illuminated only by the stars shining through the windows, quiet but for the gentle sound of the wind whistling against the eaves of the tower.

He tugs the bed covers up to his chin and closes his eyes. Emptying his mind of the accusatory glares of the Slytherins, he listens to the wind and Shinya's muted snoring, gradually drifting into slumber.


End file.
